Clyde Common

Waiting for the show at the Cleaners to start, I stopped into Clyde for a drink or three. They don't switch to the main dinner menu until 6pm, but no matter, I was in a burger mood anyway.

The Clyde burger gets a lot of play about being one of the best in town, and that's certainly true. It's definitely got stiff competition elsewhere, but the hamburger sandwich here is no slouch. I always like it with blue cheese and bacon, as the extra umami from the blue cheese goes so well with a medium rare burger, and of course lots of crunch in the form of perfectly crisp bacon and good lettuce. There's a healthy dollop of mayo, too, which I always like on a burger, and I actually think that the pickled onions are a key ingredient once everything is all put together.

After downing more than my fair share of cava, I switched over to some Amaro Nonino, a really nice Italian bitters that's been around for a while but only recently arrived in the state. It's got a slightly nuttier and overall a more pleasing mouthfeel than the Ramazzotti. It isn't in any Clyde cocktails at the moment, so unless you're like me and like it on the rocks, you should head to somewhere like Ten01 where I expect they'll be showcasing it in a drink.

Anyone try the lamb dish currently on the menu? One of the best things I've had in awhile.

Went for dinner last Saturday night, but the lamb was sold out... sounded great on paper. We opted for the sweat bread ravioli, which was amazing.

Also finally got to try the Farigoule, a traditional Provencal liqueur of thyme, lemon verbena, angelica and sage. Reminded me of green Chartreuse to an amazing degree.

Had way more than my fair share of drinks here last night, bouncing from variations of Last Words to knocking back a couple of Singapore Slings. Along the way, I also ordered the sweetbread consommé, the foie terrine on the board, the fried smelt and the arugula salad.

The simple, clear consommé might have been a hot soup but it still had just the right amount of depth of flavor to be satisfying on a warm day without being overbearing. The foie was nice, too, though I skipped the blueberry jam; I never liked the "sweet" pairings with foie, preferring just sea salt. The fried smelt was as good as usual, and if you ask me, they're a better hamburger pairing than the French fries. And finally, the arugula salad with olives was new to the menu, nothing terribly exciting if you ask me, but it was well dressed and worked well with the fried smelt, actually.

All in all, a really nice way to spend a Sunday on Stark St.

The new cocktails look great; the Old Pal has been recently featured as the shot on the Board. Looking forward to trying the Dissident, as Becherovka is one of those apothecary liquors that I've seemingly grown fond of.

That Dissident cocktail is great. Definitely my favorite of the new cocktails.

I didn't really eat much at the previous stop, so the evening crawl participants arrived at Clyde Common in search of booze but I was in search of some food as well. The chicharron made a (likely brief) return to the appetizer menu, and I quite like the emmer wheat soup with pork hocks.

Clyde has also recently added a "Dessert board", combining some of their dessert items onto one plate.

The Dissident and the Nacionale are my two current favorites. Stopped in last night with an out-of-town guest, and the vibe was great. Started off with the board, which featured some great pork ribs along with a slaw and a shot of one of their cocktails, Old Pal. Had some fries to go with it, too.

The roast chicken was great, too, and I'm glad to see that the talons are back. They morphed the dish away from the big hearty winter dish with spaetzle and apples to a lighter dish featuring shaved asparagus and mushrooms. Still the best roast chicken I've ever had.

For dessert, we split the caramel-banana tart tatin. This was a total Elvis dessert as it also featured a scoop of peanut butter swirl ice cream and some fudge. So of course it was delicious. (And as much as I celebrate the food and drink at Clyde, I think the desserts here are quite underrated.)

The Goodist dropped by Clyde for Happy Hour:
http://www.thegoodist.com/the_goodist/2009/06/review-clyde-common-happy-...

Tang and subtle sweetness from the tomato puree and pickled onions, great proteins, and a hell of a bun made for a damn near perfect 'six dollar burger'.

I know I go to Clyde quite a bit, but it seems like I'm only on a once-in-a-while rotation when it comes to having dinner there. And so I ducked in tonight, particularly looking forward to the whole fish which I had heard returned to the menu.

I started off with a classic cocktail prepared by Neil, a Curaçao punch using Germain-Robin brandy and Appleton 12 Rum. It was a really nice summertime drink, appropriate even if the temperature had cooled by about 15 degrees since the most recent heatwave.

My app for this evening was the "crispy" chicken-fried beef tongue, a great cross between thick sliced lengua and a breaded milanesa. The sherry sauce's most dominant flavor aspect was actually the tartness from the sliced cornichons, which was really nice. So nice that I got some bread to sop it up.

The whole fish this evening was trout, deboned but with the head and tail still on. It was stuffed with dates and almonds, but the dates adopted a consistency akin to the Spanish membrillo in that it was sweet and a had a slight jam-like flavor to it, but was still quite well-balanced with the flavor of the almond. Herbed couscous provided starch, as well as an excellent counterpoint to the char of the skin and the slight sweetness of the stuffing and the fish. An excellent dish.

After spreading some love by buying a dessert for the trio next to me celebrating a birthday (honestly, I recommend to everyone that if you can, to always buy something for the stranger at a bar celebrating a birthday), I decided to spring for the dessert board. Their birthday dessert was the peach shortcake with a delicious black pepper ice cream, while mine was a stacked layer of vanilla crepes that had a texture that I can't quite describe. It's like the layers of crepes gave it a firmness against the fork, but in the end, they were just crepes, so once they yielded, it was lusciously soft. My dessert board was sprinkled throughout with granola to give some crunch, as well as a really honey-laden dessert wine, a Macvin Blanc.

Clyde gets a lot of love for their cocktails, but I've always been a big advocate of their food, especially of their preparation of offal. Lately, though, the items that have been catching my eye and my palate are actually quite standard. Roast chicken. Fish. Dessert. It's quite a testament to their versatility as a dining destination, and I can't wait to go back, as if that wait would be long.

Man, nice! That fish looks great. And not to be a lazy white American, but I love the fact that they boned it, yet left if whole. Nice! Plus, that makes way for all that lovely stuffing. Wish I had been there. That whole meal, and your cocktails mentioned via twitter sound like you had the perfect evening.

Peace, Love, and Clyde

Since I know full well the troubles with figuring out all the settings and parameters of a new camera, I will post a shot of the beef tongue I had awhile back. My shot as you can see is not without its own issues(does the depth of field get any shallower?). Just thought maybe the added light would help show the color/texture of the dish.

by the way, I love this dish. The sherry sauce is perfectly tart so that it makes a great foil for the Tongue. Also loved the almost imperceptable viscosity of it. The breading was handled nicely, as that it was light and didn't get in the way of the other flavors(an issue with me....I really do not care for dishes that are wearing the 'deep-fry' coat of armor).

Not sure exactly when it happened, but Clyde Common updated their website to include the day's menus.

Now I can easily see that, for instance, the pasta dishes on the dinner menu have changed up a little, but that one of my favorite dishes, the oyster "rich girl" po' boy is still on the lunch menu.

I'm going to use that as an excuse to post a picture of it.

Ducked in last night for dinner. There is a new drink on the menu though I've got no further details as I headed straight for the Dissident anyway. There's also some of the Elmer T Lee "Lucky Tiger 95" on the shelf.

The arugula salad was simple but definitely nice, and it's an especially light way to open a meal at Clyde (it's so easy to let the balance get away from you while ordering as you get the various terrines and what not).

The current incarnation of the grilled chicken features a lot of curry-like flavor, especially in the slaw atop which the chicken is served. Again, it was really bright and summery (cilantro also figured into the mix), but the chicken was still as incredibly juicy as always.

I also recently had a chance to try the dessert board, featuring angel food cake.

There definitely were some new and interesting things on the current menu (including the return of offal ravioli), but I opted to play it safe and go for some known hits.

There's a new cocktail on the drink list, called the Right Turn, combining rye, grapefruit juice and egg white. It's another delicious addition to the list and despite the egg white, is well balanced with a light enough texture that you'll happily order it even on a warm summer evening.

I didn't try out any of TheGoodist's halibut entree last night, but it looked pretty spectacular, combining Clyde's housemade chorizo as well as some plump looking mussels to a large piece of halibut.

does anyone else notice that it seems half the cocktails at Clyde these days have egg white in them? I don't even know whether to think if someone is just getting lazy or has some weird hard-on for egg.

Another Clyde Common bartender, Neil Kopplin, has started a blog as well, and shares this funny anecdote from a very typical Sunday evening.

He reaches out and shakes my hand, he says "My name is Sean". I greet him, and ask him where he works. He says "PDT."

A night of cocktailing was highlighted by dinner at the always satisfying Clyde Common. This gastropub always cranks out excellent food and drinks to go along with its fun atmosphere. I'll start off with what was the big hit of the night, the chicken fried chicken livers. This has been a staple of the menu for quite some time, available in one form or another. here, it's served with cucumber, pickled onion, frisée and a preserved lemon aioli.

chicken fried chicken livers

Two main proteins were ordered: the grilled flatiron steak and the lamb brochette. I thought both cuts of meat were well cooked, but for me the stars of the plate were actually other components of the dish. The flatiron steak was served with a smoked tomato relish that was quite delicious, while the lamb was served atop an excellent corona bean purée.

flatiron steak (on the left) and lamb brochette

Four other dishes were ordered. One was a white bean and vegetable soup, which was simple but still very satisfying, thanks in part to the chorizo sofrito. There was also the arugula salad with olives and pecorino.

I didn't really have much of the next two so I'm hoping someone can pipe in. One was the pork belly, sandwiched between two fried green tomatoes and served with cannellini beans and bread+butter pickles.

pork belly and fried green tomatoes

The other was the evening's board. A small hunk of seared mortadella and potato salad, served also with mustard and bread. It was paired with a shot of Conclass verdejo rueda from Spain.

seared mortadella

The cocktail menu underwent some big changes this week, too. Holdovers include favorites of mine like the Dissident and Norwegian Wood. New stars include the Autumn Leaves cocktail, combining rye, apple brandy, sweet vermouth, Strega (a Sicilian digestif), cinnamon tincture and orange peel. Really nice fall flavors, with just enough cinnamon to warm the spirit without being at all overpowering. It was a perfect cocktail for a rainy evening.

I wasn't a fan of the Bosoni Variation, and I'm a guy who really likes amaro (for dessert, I had a shot of Fernet at Ten01). It combines the Punt E Mes with Averna with a little lemon peel. It's just a little too much to be served up in a martini glass. The way the drink is composed now, I'd prefer it better as a shot. (I later tried a variation on the Variation which included gin, with much better results.)

The pork belly between fried green tomatoes was really enjoyable - the tartness of the tomatoes worked well with the richness of the pork belly.

As far as the board goes, the wine was really the star. The potato salad was not bad, but not particularly memorable. I liked the mortadella quite a bit, but it definitely had me scratching my head and wondering what the heck actually defines mortadella. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortadella

Anyway, I'll throw in another vote for the Autumn Leaves, which was reported to be similar to the Fallen Leaves, but has many more and more complex ingredients.

One of the new cocktails, the Solera Club, is detailed on Morgenthaler's blog:

http://www.jeffreymorgenthaler.com/2009/the-solera-club/

I like wine-based cocktails, because they don’t punch you in the face the way, say, a 94-proof gin-based cocktail is going to. This means these drinks are going to be more versatile, and drinkable on more occasions than a big spirit-driven monster. A lot of my customers like to end the night with one of these low-proof sippers, but I take a more European tack myself and delight in them during the late afternoon, noshing on Marcona almonds and watching the sidewalk traffic without getting falling-down drunk.

The recipe for the Autumn Leaves cocktail is published in the SF Chronicle

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/11/13/FDU31AI1PA.DTL

Portland, Ore. bartender Jeffrey Morgenthaler uses Clear Creek Distillery's 2-year-old apple brandy to give this drink a distinctive seasonal flavor.

http://www.playboy.com/articles/imbiber-eggnog/index.html